Led by Mike Doherty

Summer Term 2007

As the Oxford English Dictionary tells us, the word “violence” has existed in the English language since the late 13^th century, but while its roots lie in the Latin for “vehemence” and “impetuosity,” most recently it has also come to signify “undue constraint.” This seminar will examine violence as, on the one hand, an expression of passion or intensity and, on the other, as a force that works to curb freedom. The opposition between these two conceptions lies at the heart of philosophical debates over individuality and the role of the state, and carries over into a host of other disciplines.

This opposition is also to be found in the domain of art and aesthetics. In his infamous but influential book The Birth of Tragedy, (1872) Friedrich Nietzsche set out the idea of an amoral aesthetics which encapsulates both creation and destruction (and hence violence), while more traditionally, art continues to be seen as necessarily orderly, rather than chaotic. The depiction of violence in film, television, and literature, meanwhile, has inspired a rich vein of psychological enquiry which debates whether such depictions are gratuitously shocking, or whether they serve a “constructive” purpose — as a warning, a catalyst for catharsis, or the affirmation of humankind’s desire for justice.

In order to explore these tensions in philosophy, psychology, and aesthetics, we will study readings and films in tandem, bringing together the work of thinkers such as Nietzsche, Walter Benjamin, René Girard, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Hannah Arendt with that of directors such as Sam Peckinpah, Kihachi Okamoto, Antonia Bird, and Quentin Tarantino.

Week One (10th May): Dirty Harry vs. Walter Benjamin: This Time It’s Personal

Screening:
Sudden Impact (Clint Eastwood, 1983)

Reading:
Walter Benjamin, “Critique of Violence” (1921)
Murray Smith, “Engaging Characters,” from Engaging Characters (1995)

Week Two (17th May): Another Man’s Freedom Fighter: Rambo and The Wretched of the Earth

Screening:
Rambo III (Peter MacDonald, 1988)

Reading:
Jean-Paul Sartre, Preface to The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon (1961)
Hannah Arendt, “Reflections on Violence” (1969), (Sections III, IV, and optionally V) – Online here
Gregory Desilet, excerpt from Our Faith in Evil (2006)

Week Three (24th May): Is Nothing Sacred?: René Girard and the Appetite for Destruction

Screening:
Ravenous (Antonia Bird, 1999)

Reading:
René Girard, “From Mimesis to the Monstrous Double,” from Violence and the Sacred (1979)
Noël Carroll, “Horror Today,” from The Philosophy of Horror (1990)

Week Four (31st May): The Agony and the Ecstasy: Nieztsche’s Cathartic Aesthetics

Screening:
The Sword of Doom (Kihachi Okamoto, 1966)

Reading:
John Gray, “The Vices of Morality,” from Straw Dogs (2002)
Friedrich Nieztsche, The Birth of Tragedy (1872), (Sections 22-25) – Online here
Joel Black, “Catharsis and Murder,” from The Aesthetics of Murder (1991)

Week Five (7th June): A Bit of the Old Ultraviolence: Bloody Sam’s Rough Justice

Screening:
Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, 1971)

Reading:
Stephen Prince, Excerpts from Savage Cinema: Sam Peckinpah and the Rise of Ultraviolent Movies (1998)
Dolf Zillmann, “The Psychology of the Appeal of Portrayals of Violence” (1998)

Week Six (14th June): The Bitch Is Back: Tarantino and the Return of the Oppressed

Screening:
Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003)

Reading:
Hilary Neroni, “Romancing Trauma: The Violent Woman in Contemporary American Film,” from The Violent Woman (2005)
Vivian Sobchack, “The Violent Dance: A Personal Memoir of Death in the Movies” (1974/99)